Loft Insulation in London

Loft Insulation in London

Along with our loft extensions we obviously provide incredibly high standard insulation for your roof, loft and home!

Should I get roof insulation or loft insulation?

One thing to bear in mind is the difference between loft and roof insulation and what circumstances the two are used in. Both of them use specific materials to create a barrier in your home against the outside environment, which will help keep heat - or cold - in the house, helping to maintain its ambient temperature and saving you costs on your energy bills!

The main circumstance that determines which you have depends on whether your loft is a living space or not. If it’s not a living space, then you’ll have loft insulation. This is insulation that is laid on the floor of the loft in order to easily create a flat surface of insulation, trapping the heat that naturally rises and keeping it in the house. This is an easy and relatively cheap way of insulating your home.

Insulating a loft in London for living space

If your loft is a living space then you will have roof insulation. This is where insulation will be placed against the roof. This is usually done using rigid insulation boards that are placed flush to the inside of the roof between the rafters to keep the insulation as airtight as possible. This form of insulation tends to be more expensive as the rigid boards are more expensive to produce, the process is rather labour intensive as the boards have to be cut to size to allow no draughts through and in some cases the insulation will have to be placed over the rafters too.

How does Merton Loft Conversion perform loft insulation?

The first thing we will always do is check whether the roof is flat or not. If the roof is not, then the process is fairly simple. First check to make sure the roof doesn’t suffer from damp. If it does then we will take steps with you in order to remove this damp. Once this is done, we’ll work with you to clear all of your belongings out of the loft if you’re currently using it as a storage space.

Then we will make sure to lag (insulate) any pipes, water tanks or other sources of water. This is because as a results of the house being insulated, the air in the loft will be colder. This is due to the fact that warm air in the house will no longer be rising into the loft.

We will also need to ensure that any electrical wiring is above the insulation for a few reasons, the main one of which being to ensure any electricians can actually access this cabling, another large reason being that if the wiring is the type that gets very hot with use, then being just below the insulation would be a terrible idea as the hea wouldn’t be able to escape the wire, in some freak cases causing the wire to start a fire!

Then we’ll be ready to insulate your loft! Firstly, we’ll lay down a polythene sheet, what this will do is prevent moisture from passing through, which will remove the threat of condensation in your loft, and prevent damage to your house.

We will then measure, cut and lay down PIR boarding (it is one of the more expensive insulations, but we feel it is the most cost-effective for the life it has and can last the lifetime of the building if it is maintained from time to time. We will lay this down between the joists of the roof, then lay down another layer at right angles to the first to provide another layer and cover any low density areas that exist between the boards and joists.

If the roof it is flat, then a new challenge presents itself to us: If we insulate on the inside, then condensation will get trapped inside the house and cause damp problems in the loft and roof.  The way we fight this is by insulating the outside of the roof as opposed to the inside. This way condensation won’t get trapped in the loft space
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